Two weeks ago a poll indicated that 43 percent of the public feels worse off now than they were four years ago Mortgage delinquencies hit a 23 year high, home foreclosures soared to an all-time record in the 4th quarter of 07, oil reached an all time high today and will go higher tomorrow, gas increases at the pump are expected to reach $4.00 a gallon soon never again to reach the 3 something a gallon, the cost of food will rise exponentially, the value of the dollar is daily dropping like a rock, college loans are becoming less available and less affordable for a growing number of students who weren’t left behind before but now increasingly feel they’ve got no place to go here in the homeland, unemployment is growing and will continue to increase as more jobs are outsourced to places that can maximize corporate profits with cheaper labor and banks are bailed out by taxpayers who don’t get bailed out when they’re going broke.
American families are broken and crushed beneath the wheel of unfettered capitalism in a trickle down Republican economic welfare state for the rich rubber stamped by the opposition party that seems to have no problem finding 12 billion dollars every month to finance the war that was based on at least 935 documented lies one of which was that the war would pay for itself or the nearly 30 billion it took to bail out Bear Stearns over the weekend while for the last several months Republicans and Democrats alike can’t agree to give one brown penny to a dwindling middle class drowning in debt.
The other day John McCain gave a speech on his perception of the problems facing our economy, offered his solution and provided a view of his approach to the relationship between the government and the people which in essence is stay the course and not only maintain the status quo but offer more tax breaks for corporations without ever asking how this perpetual war on terrorism will be financed. In addition he doesn’t believe the government should bail out people who make mistakes but he had no problem with the government bailing out an investment bank that made a mistake which adversely affected a large number of people. John McCain’s idea about the relationship between government and the people who give their consent is not what Jefferson had in mind.
43 percent of the public feels worse off now than they were four years ago because the reality is that they are worse off and in 4 more years we’ll be much worse off if we stay the course where the rich get richer and poor become poorer. The John McCain who admits to not knowing that much about the economy that George Bush says his administration is on top of will not only extend the Bush tax cuts he will also increase tax cuts to the corporations. How much will we have to borrow to pay for this hundred year war, from who will we borrow, who will have to pay it back and how will they do it are questions that no one asks John McCain or anyone else who supports preemptive war.
Given the abysmal state of our economy and John McCain’s propensity to stay the course one would think that it would be a slam dunk for the Democrats to take the White House and increase their majorities in both the House and the Senate yet the unsettled Democratic primary threatens not only to make the absurdity of another Republican administration a reality but to break the Democratic Party beyond repair unless Hillary Clinton puts the Democratic Party and the American people before her own political ambitions.
Mathematically Sen. Hillary Clinton cannot win the total number of states, nor the number of delegates, nor more than likely the popular vote that is without the support of Republicans who vote for her in open elections or switch political party affiliation such as that which is occurring in present day Pa. to vote for her urged on by Rush Limbaugh to further divide the Democratic Party by providing a reason and an excuse for Sen. Clinton to pursue her candidacy the only way it can be successful by any means necessary including using divisive Republican tactics of fear mongering phone calls at 3am in Texas and race bating in Pa. Indeed hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
At this point in the Democratic Primary it appears Sen. Obama has an insurmountable lead and will eventually be the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Sen. Clinton’s continued efforts to challenge this fact is in and of itself divisive and what we need in the United States today is not division – not when our economy is collapsing, when prices are increasing disproportionate to wages, when a consumer oriented society can no longer afford to consume and our military is bogged down in third world countries
If the Democratic Party really wants to slam dunk the 08 election rather than continue this contest and its foregone conclusion Sen. Clinton should put her party before her own political ambition, withdraw from the race, and pledge complete support for Sen. Obama who should also put the party values before his own political ambitions by offering Hillary Clinton to be his running mate,. For the sake of party unity she should accept and together they can change the politics as usual which created conditions for a state of perpetual war that insures huge profits for the military industrial complex and its share holders that eventually resulted in our free falling economy because as a nation we can no longer afford to finance the failed policies of a Republican Party that is out of touch with reality.
